48 | Key Travel

Key Travel
2022 sales: $175.7 million
Previous ranking: 49
Employees: 215 full-time, 28 part-time

St. James Building, Ninth Floor
61-95 Oxford St.
Manchester U.K. M1 6EJ
Phone: +44 (0) 0161-819-8900
Website

Executives

CEO: Saad Hammad
GROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR: Simon Conoley
GROUP IT DIRECTOR: Dan Morris
GLOBAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR: Rachel Baxendale
GLOBAL PRODUCT MANAGER: Bruce Teatheredge
MANAGING DIRECTOR, NORTH AMERICA: Mike Schields
COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, U.K.: Paul Green
COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, EU/AFRICA: Sabrina Pabois

Company facts

* Privately held company, owned by Elysian Capital Partners.

* A member of Lufthansa City Center network, Advantage and Tourcom.

2022 Developments

* Refinanced to ensure cash to withstand the pandemic's adverse impacts and accelerate through recovery with funds for more investment in technology and product innovation.

* Rebuilt staff, doubling the number of full-time employees.

* Invested in technology, moving to a more intuitive agent-booking platform, rolling out global ticketing, automating schedule changes and adding online enhancements.

* Launched Do Good Rates with its major hotel provider, giving customers who travel to do good in the world a discount on bookings of up to 15%. 

* Rolled out Carbon Neutral Hotel Rooms, in which the hotel provider offsets the cost of the emissions of a room at no added cost to the customer. 

* Introduced Eco Fares with a global airline, in which the airline contributes a portion of eligible fares to carbon-reduction projects through Key Travel's carbon-offsetting partner, Cool Effect, a San Francisco-based NGO and a world leader in carbon reduction.

Looking ahead

* The company's theme this year is "M-O-G-I" (Muscle up, Optimize, Grow and Innovate). Goals are sustained recruitment/IT investment, agent productivity and customer service, growing with existing customers and winning new ones and developing and launching products and services.

* Anticipates hiring 25% more employees.

* Investing in technical improvements to increase customer point-of-sale options and customer experience, including a redesign of its online booking tool and integrating additional flight content online.

* Launching WhatsApp and chat functionality to increase customer contact options and enhance the ability to speak with an agent when mobile signal is poor.

* Growing the business in new territories through partnerships with other TMCs.

* Travel activity trended higher in the first quarter compared to the last quarter of 2022 but saw dampening effects to demand such as strong economic headwinds and ongoing travel disruption through industrial action across multiple sectors. While it expects travel to grow significantly from 2022 to 2023, the growth will be slower than originally envisioned. A return to full-year profitability in 2023 is expected, and the company remains cautiously optimistic about the future. 

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